The Cause
"What is a man who lives and dies but does not make the world a better place?" Anger is the emotional response to injustice, a truth which the Crusaders hold close to their (often armored) breast. They are God's shock troops, ferreting out the Darkness wherever it lay, or organizing strike forces together against a common foe. The Crusaders have a penchant for heavy handiness, but to be fair they usually only work in extreme situations, scenarios where the area is completely overrun by the enemy. The primary power of the Crusader is the supernatural Armor of God which adorns their bodies. This living metal bonds with the person on a molecular level, able to assume all sorts of shapes and sizes, even to disappear inside the person's body so as to hide itself and allow the Crusader to be appear a normal civilian. The Armor of God is living metal, connected to the Crusader on the deepest of levels. The Crusader can will the armor to form all sorts of tools (beginners can fashion crude swords and clubs, novices can form lethal blades and all sorts of medieval-esque weaponry, and the truly advanced can form complex weapons like firearms and grenade launchers). Each Crusader's 'armor' looks slightly different, often depending on facets of the Crusader's personality. Aspect of God: Heroism. AKA: Templars, Knights, Paladins. Facts -Aura of Courage = Just being around a Crusader makes others feel more brave. -Crusader and armor can separate, but only for a short duration of time. While separated, each feels anxious to reconnect with the other. -Supernaturally Resistant = The Armor is highly resilient when used against supernatural powers. -Strategist = The Armor affords the Crusader an enhanced mental image of the battlefield, a trick which is psychic in nature, allowing them to asses enemy and ally troops, conditions of the battlefield, etc. Crusaders often 'see' this information as a map inside their minds, even while fighting. -Fast Healer = The Armor aids the Crusader in healing, even lethal damage can be healed if done so soon enough. -Crusaders say they have only one true rule: do what is right. -Enhanced Reflexes = The Armor has upgraded the Crusader's nervous system, allowing him to move with lightning reflexes. -Tendrils = The armor can send out 'whips' of itself to either attack, grapple, or somehow manipulate other things on the battlefield. Whips cannot be transformed into weapons (except by Crusaders of Veteran status), they remain whiplike in structure and function until they fully return to the Crusader's body. -Ignore Pain = The Armor can cancel any feeling of pain, allowing Crusaders to fight on despite nerve or tissue damage. -Greater Strength = The Armor acts as secondary muscle tissue, enhancing the Crusader's strength and constitution. -Crusaders have been found in all cultures, even the Samurai of the Orient. The founder of Aikido was said to be a Crusader, and the martial traditions of Aikido are popular among this Order. -A Crusader's Standard-Form is the shape and appearance their living armor takes. It will assume a form that is aesthetically pleasing to its host, so someone into medieval studies would look like an early knight, another would be a Templar or Teutonic Knight. Others would b samurai, landskneights, pikemen, etc. Factions -The Knights Templar were a medieval order of warrior monks who fought bravely and were betrayed by the countries they fought to protect. It is said that from the beginning the Crusaders held central positions within the order, but before their demise, the Crusaders subsumed the Templar's entire organization. Today, there are elite military units of Templars who are ordinary humans trained and funded by their Crusader brothers. When the Crusaders need backup, the Templars are called in. References: -http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320661/ -http://www.amazingfacts.org/media-library/book/e/52/t/the-armor-of-god.aspx -http://thefirsttemplar-game.com/us/index.php -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EAqu28Dd-M -Witchblade on Wikipedia -